To Save Your Life, You Gotta Die
by I'm a Veronica
Summary: Halley Comette, a broken girl within team SHDW, a team formed the same year as team RWBY. No one knows who she is. There is no documentation of her past. Whether or not she can be trusted is unknown. The only thing about her that people know, is that she is powerful and deadly. Will she help Beacon with destroying the grim? Or will she aid in the destruction of Beacon?
1. Chapter 1

To Save Your Life, You Gotta Die

Chapter 1: The Black Pawn

" _She has secrets she never told_

 _She holds those dark secrets deep within_

 _People say she is coldhearted_

 _They do not know how she weeps in her sleep_

 _Nor the secrets she keeps_

 _If only they knew her darkest secrets"_

"You can't trust anyone, Halley. Just me. I'll protect you, little sister, from the evils of this world," a calm voice says inside Halley Comette's head as she shakes her head at the olive skinned boy that was apparently her partner now. "A pawn? Really?" Halley asks with annoyance clearly shown in her voice. "The knight is cooler," she adds on keeping an eye on their surroundings by the ancient temple, the gold streak in her short black hair flying into her face with the wind.

"We were the last ones here, okay. The pawn was the only piece not taken," the olive skinned boy says turning to look at the amber eyed girl with his light brown eyes that matched his hair exactly. "Let's get going, and this time actually listen. We only got lost thanks to you," he says as Halley rolls her eyes and follows him back into the forest.

Halley twirls a gold arrow in her hand as they walk through the forest looking for the way back to the cliffs. Shadows dance across the trees and the sunlight begins to dim and the two teens begin to tire. "We're lost, aren't we Seth?" she says as they stop to rest by some rocks. She looks up at the taller boy, Seth, as she sits down on a rock crossing her right leg over her left. Seth looks towards the small creek off to the side causing Halley to smirk as the water gurgles over the stones in the creek. "I told you that we wouldn't get lost if I climbed a tree to see where we are," she calls over to him standing up and stretching. Seth glances over at her as the sunset beams seem to glow on her pale skin as her vest slightly falls back exposing her skin under the black bandage crop top she was wearing. She snaps a finger and the golden arrow she had been carrying disappears as she grabs the lower limb of a tree beginning to pull herself up. She continues to climb higher until she is above the tree line. The cliffs seemed to be a straight path ahead if one jumped from tree to tree, but Halley knew that Seth wouldn't even be able to climb the tree. He weighed too much for the branches to support him for a long period of time, they could barely support her and she was rather light. Zigzag paths across the forest grow more prominent after Halley looks across the dense, green, foliage of the forest. After a few more minutes she begins to climb back down before just jumping and landing in a perfect crouch with a cat-like grace. "Follow me, idiot. I know where to go," she calls over her shoulder beginning to walk towards the cliffs. Seth begins to walk after her right as Halley smirks and breaks into a run easily vaulting over the rocks and bushes in her 3 inch heels. Seth crashes through the forest after her trying to keep the dark-haired girl ahead of him in sight.

"Hurry up, slowpoke. The sun is almost down." Halley smirks standing at the edge of a path that she found going up the cliffs. "We already passed being fashionably late," she chuckles starting to go up the path with Seth catching up to be close behind her. At the top of the path, the rest of the first years were standing there waiting having caught their breath from their fight with the grim.

"Let's get back to Beacon. The teams have been decided," Professor Ozpin announces before heading to the ship that will bring him and the students back to Beacon.

"The final team will be team SHDW. They have chosen the black pawns and the members are Seth Powers, Halley Comette, Diggie Lupin, and Warden Schnee. Their leader is Warden Schnee," Ozpin announces after going through the creations of teams RWBY, JNPR, and CRDL.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Best of Friends, or Best of Enemies

 _You are a wolf…_

 _Your heart is strong_

 _and bold, yet you are sleek as lightning_

 _and caring. You can rough it if you_

 _need to, but teamwork is your most_

 _vital life skill. Without your friends,_

 _you would be nothing_

Warden Schnee sighs as Team SHDW forces him to sit in a circle with them. "Have a sense of what fun is Ice Prince," Halley comments to Warden who just rolls his soft green eyes. Halley's amber eyes glitter mischievously "you can go first for truth or dare," she suggests nudging the white haired boy's side.

Seth, a more olive skinned boy with chestnut brown eyes to match his hair, looks at Diggie, a tan boy with scraggly, with untamed grey hair to matched his grey wolf's tail showing him to be a wolf Faunus. The two boys smirk before starting to chant "Warden, Warden, Warden" annoying the pale skinned, white haired boy sitting next to the not-as-pale dark haired, amber eyed Halley.

Warden groans "fine, fine. I'll join," as he gives in to the persistence to his team. The moonlight shines through the window lighting up the room and making Warden look even paler as he wears his black pajama bottoms and a black tank top for pajamas. He turns towards Diggie, who was wearing just grey sweatpants, and asks "truth or dare," boredly. He had only agreed to play due to his team's insistence and so he can get to know his team better.

"Truth," Diggie says after a second of thinking about the choice for a minute. Warden leans back against the wall his bed rests against thinking of a good question. Warden glances at Halley's leather cord bracelet with a carved wooden sun on it that matches Diggie's nearly identical bracelet that had a carved wooden crescent moon instead of a sun.

"How long have you and Halley known each other?" Warden asks Diggie leaning forward to better hear Diggie's answer. Diggie leans back and smirks before saying "We met about 3 years ago in the forest. She was fighting some grim and I jumped in to help her." Diggie jokingly winks at Halley, who was in a black tanktop with red flames that match her reddish gold shorts and the gold streak in her hair. Halley rolls her eyes smiling before adding "and I remember kicking you in the stomach in response," to what Diggie said. Diggie picks up Halley's pillow, black with gold bursts, and throws it at her hitting her in the stomach making her burst into giggles.

"Seth, truth or dare?" Diggie asks Seth. "Dare" Seth says instantly while winking and smirking at Halley trying to impress her. Halley rolls her eyes and leans back against the wall. "I dare you to…" Diggie starts to say while thinking. Halley leans forward and motions Diggie to lean forward. As she whispers in Diggie's ear, Seth looks down Halley's tank top until she pulls away from Diggie as Diggie smirks mischievously. "I dare you to kiss Warden" Diggie smirks leaning back as Warden and Seth look at him disgusted. Seth groans and leans across Halley to kiss Warden's cheek, who starts to gag. Seth leans back to his spot while flicking a piece of Halley's black hair out of her face. Halley gives him a cold, unamused look making him lean back faster. "So, Halley, truth or dare?" Seth asks Halley flexing his muscles working on showing off his muscles to impress Halley. Seth was just wearing a pair of blue basketball shorts exposing his chiseled 6-pack that would make Ryan Reynolds jealous. "Dare," Halley responds unaffected by Seth showing off. Seth smirks and gets off Halley's bed to sit next to Halley on Warden's bed slinging his arm around her shoulders "I dare you to go on a date with me," he smirks flexing his biceps and going to kiss Halley's cheek just to be suddenly stop when she puts her hand in the way while saying "in my family, we don't date. It's more like, gang activity," and getting his arm off of her shoulders.

The three boys give Halley a look of shock since she seems to look more innocent than like one would appear to look like if one was in a gang. "Looks can be deceiving," she states simply getting off of Warden's bed. "Now, I don't know about you guys, but I want to make bunk beds just for the hell of it," she says her amber eyes glowing with fire making her semblance show, which would be a human warhead or comet. "Let's do it!" Diggie cheers jumping off of Halley's bed to join her at his. "How about I shoot an arrow with cords on it as supports and you blast the bed up there," Diggie suggests taking out his bow, Wolfsbane, and notching an arrow that had a cord attached to it. He shoots the arrow above Seth's bed and it lodges there holding the cord in place. He tosses the other end of the cord to Halley, who then attaches it to an arrow and shoots it directly across from Diggie's arrow with her bow, Suckerpunch, making the cord stable. they do it once more before Halley crawls under Diggie's bed. A bright golden light could be seen as Halley causes a small explosion rocketing the bed upward just for it to break into pieces. "Well that was a bust," Halley comments as pieces of wood, blanket and feathers shower down on her. "Now if I was leader, that would not have happened," Seth comments while laughing at the failure of the two archers who glare at him. "Well maybe whoever came up with the team name just wanted it to sound cool and wanted someone who could lead to lead," Halley calmly states back to Seth with a tone that had the underlying sense of danger.

"Well before anything else explodes or a fight erupts, let's get to bed," Warden says stepping between his two teammates to avoid possible death within the team. "Well, my beautiful fiery teammate, you can feel free to share a bed with me," Seth offers Halley with a wink and a smirk. Halley rolls her eyes and walks past Seth and Warden making sure to bump into Seth as Diggie follows. "I'll just share my bed with Diggie. It is what we did before coming here anyways," Halley says laying down in her bed and Diggie climbs over her to lay down between her and the wall. Warden climbs into his bed and Seth turned out the lights before climbing into his. It was going to be a long 4 years for Team SHDW.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Forsaken Memories

 **Author's Note: So the voices for team RWBY has been decided. The voice for Seth is Cody Simpson, Halley is Dove Cameron, Diggie is BooBoo Stuart, and Warden is Jake Abel. Their song theme will be told at another time due to my inability to settle on one for Warden.**

" _Sister is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship"_

 _-Margaret Mead_

" _Take deep breaths, sis. Inhale through your nose as you aim, exhale as you release the arrow," a young teen with short, raven black hair says kneeling down behind a shorter girl with waist-length, raven black hair. The child's eyes narrow as she concentrates on aiming the arrow nocked in her older sister's bow and hitting the target made out of a cardboard box 20 feet away. The fall wind pushes red leaves off of the trees lightly falling onto the two sisters. The chill in the air fails to affect the girls as the two adults come out of the small wooden house. The house was barely big enough to have four people live in there resulting in the sisters having to share a bed that barely fit just one of the girls. The roof was patched up roughly due to the lack of money to get it properly fixed. The walls had seen better days and were covered in dents and holes, not do to age though, that was the fault of the younger girl headbutting the wall numerous times trying to run through the wall. The man who left the house had sandy blond hair and warm amber eyes with a dash of freckles across his nose. He had a smile evident on his face as he ruffled the older girl's hair earning an annoyed "dad!" and a giggle from the younger girl when he ruffled her hair. The young girl drops the bow and just clings onto her father's arm laughing as he tickles her. The woman rolls her eyes and kisses the young girl's cheek earning a bright smile from the girl as the woman hugs the young teen. The woman had raven black hair that barely reached her shoulders and a pale complexion, not the kind of pale that looks sickly, but the kind of pale that makes one look flawlessly beautiful._

" _We won't be gone long, girls. Just a few days away on a business trip," the woman smiles as both of the children hug her. "I'll keep the squirt out of trouble, mom," the young teen promises her mother earning a smile. "I know you will, my little flame. Just make sure to be inside once your father and I enter the forest," the mother says breaking away from the hug with a sad smile as if she knew that it would be the last time she ever saw her daughters. She looks over at her husband and younger daughter to see them play fighting and acting like complete dolts. She rolls her eyes before saying "Ashe, we need to go or we'll be late." The father nods and kisses the young girl on the forehead before standing up and walking to the edge of his forest with his wife. He nods at his eldest daughter who takes the hand of the younger and brings her inside. The two adults look at each other as snow starts to fall and they enter the forest._

 _Hours later, the young child was asleep next to her sister on their bed. The young teen was unable to sleep however, something was keeping her awake. She wasn't sure of what it_ _was, she just had a gut feeling that something bad was going to happen. As the teen begins to doze into sleep, a scream pierces the air awakening both girls with a jump. "That sounded like mom," the child says getting up and getting dressed before the older girl even crawled out of bed. The teen quickly gets dressed after rising and runs out of the small house and to the edge of the forest. "Sis, go back. I'll see if that's mom and dad," the teen orders the younger girl who shakes her head stubbornly. "I'm going with you. I know that you won't let anything happen to me," the child says stubbornly holding up a flashlight and turning it on. The teen rolls her eyes and runs into the forest with the younger girl close behind her. Trees claw at the girls as the run towards the screaming. Rocks stick out of the ground grotesquely tripping them as they reach a river within the forest. There the girls' parents were lying on the ground covered in blood and two men stood over them laughing. "These two are weak. I told you that we should have gone after one of our fellow huntsmen. They are much better prey than these two weaklings," one of the men say. The men were hidden in the darkness unable to be clearly seen by either girl, the two of which were hiding behind a rock. The second man takes out his crossbow and aims it at the girls' mother while smiling insanely. "Nighty night bitch," he laughs as he fires the crossbow not noticing the woman mouth 'run' to her children hiding behind the rocks. As the crossbow bolt rests in their mother's heart, the two girls run. And once their feet grew tired, they didn't stop running._

Halley tosses and turns in her sleep as her nightmare continues. As she jerks around, she accidentally kicks Diggie onto the ground, instantly waking him up causing him to grumble. The grey wolf tailed teen stands up and crawls back into bed with Halley and hugs her. She instantly cuddles up to him and cries into his shoulder as she continues to sleep, "All will be okay Halley. One day the nightmare will end. You're safe," he whispers into Halley's ear as he succumbs to his own exhaustion.


	4. Chapter 4

To Save Your Life, You Gotta Die

Chapter 4: All it Takes is a Spark

 **Authors Note: SO the themes for team SHDW have been decided! The theme for Seth is Womanizer by Britney Spears, the theme for Halley is Riptide by Sick Puppies, the theme for Diggie is Welcome to the Jungle by Guns and Roses, and the theme for Warden is So What I Lied by Sick Puppies! The overall team SHDW song is Issues by Sick Puppies!**

" _Let's try something new; you live your life, I live mine. Sound good? Oh, and for the record, they love me!" –Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four_

"Why are we stalking the exchange students again?" Halley whines jumping up onto the metal railing separating the docks from the lapis lazuli water below them. She closes her eyes as the salty, ocean breeze makes her hair flowing behind her tickling the pale skin on the back of her neck. She leans back as her mind wanders, thoughts of gently rocking on a small houseboat fills her mind. She is yanked out of her daydream as Warden roughly pulls her off of the railing. "What the hell was that for!?" Halley snaps at Warden not realizing how close she was to the tall, white-haired Schnee.

"Y-you were about to fall…" Warden stutters while blushing. His hands were still gently gripping Halley's forearms as she stood only centimeters away from him. He rubs circles into her arms gently not thinking. Halley looks at him with confusion in her warm amber eyes before looking down at his hands and back up at him with a slight blush evident on her pale cheeks. Diggie glances over at Halley and his partner and noticed that Warden's hands continued to linger on Halley's arms. Diggie glares at his partner his tail fur bristles and he displays his sharp teeth in anger as he growls at Warden warning the Schnee to quickly get away from Halley. Warden lets go of Halley and quickly backs up his hands up in surrender as he walks into Weiss who was watching the ships with the rest of team RWBY.

Weiss quickly turns around to scold her younger twin brother. "You need to pay less attention to Halley and more attention to the competition! Observing them will give our teams an advantage in the tournament!" She reminds Warden before turning back to watch the ships. A blond haired faunus boy who kept his shirt open exposing his abs jumps out of the ship that arrives a few minutes later. He swings on a lightpole and eats a banana while saying "A no-good stowaway would have gotten caught. I'm a great stowaway," before dropping the banana peel on the police officer's head and taking off running. The boy runs past the two teams winking and smiling at Blake as he runs past her, to the cat faunus' confusion. "Quick! We have to observe him!" Weiss exclaims leading the rest of team RWBY in the chase after the monkey faunus.

Halley rolls her warm amber eyes as she watches another boat come in and dock. "Do we…" she starts to say before seeing a brief glimpse of a crimson and gold dress. The wearer of the dress slowly turns and makes eye contact with Halley from the roof of a building before she disappears. Halley's face flushes with fear as she quickly grasps Diggie's hand. "Diggie, we have to go… NOW!" she says dragging Halley away from the other two boys that look at the raven haired girl with concern.

"Everything alright, Firebug?" Seth asks Halley smirking as his perfect white teeth sparkle in the sunlight. Halley suddenly turns and struts over to Seth stopping in front of the 6'2'' chestnut haired huntsman-in-training and smirks while trailing a perfectly manicured finger with blood red nail polish down his bare chest making him shiver.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Halley smirks evilly before punching Seth in the dick hard enough to make him tear up and double over in agony, "jackass" she singsongs turning on her heels walking away the click of her heels growing fainter the further she got. Diggie laughs and says "You've been wanting her to touch you there and boy does she like it rough. I happen to be slightly sorry for her, it's shark week for her," to Seth before following Halley. Warden was cracking up laughing next to Seth getting shoved by the slightly upright Seth instantly making Warden catch himself.

"Fenrir Dogsend Lupin!" Halley yells at Diggie who flinches as his tails tucks between his legs as he runs to catch up to his fiery best friend.

Warden keeps his hands in his pockets until he reaches team SHDW's dorm room. He collapses onto his bed with his head on his pillow his hair splayed around his head. "What's wrong with me?" Warden mutters to himself looking up at the wall behind the headboard. Warden takes out his scroll and pulls up his father's number biting his lip and hits call. The teenage boy holds his scroll up to his ear as he listens to it ring continuously. "Hey dad. I need some advice," Warden says into his scroll after his father picks it up on the other end.

"Why did she have to come here? She could've picked anywhere to cause mayhem but why here?! I finally got to start getting my life back and now it's going to be taken away again! What do I do?!" Halley panics pacing in front of Diggie who was leaning against the wall outside of Junior's club that had just gotten fixed up after Yang had blew it up. Halley's eyes were filled with fear as she starts to pull at her hair and hyperventilate. Diggie rolls his eyes and strides over to the smaller girl and pulls her into a hug letting her dig her nails into his back as she works at calming down. "What you need is to get into that club and threaten Junior into giving you a free drink or five like what you usually do when you think you see You-Know-Who," Diggie suggests starting to lead Halley into the club that is practically vibrating with the bass of the music. Men in black with red ties and sunglasses dance on the dance floor and stand around the club as Halley and Diggie approach the bar where Junior was behind the bar cleaning some shot glasses. "I knew you would come. She's back in Vale," Junior says to Halley who had gotten in control of her emotions. Halley's eyes turn to a cold amber rather than her normal warm tone to them. "Do you know for how long she will be in town?" Halley asks Junior taking the offered shot glass filled with the most expensive scotch. Halley downs the scotch in one go the warm feeling already making her feel better, she sets down the glass and Junior just slides the bottle in front of the girl. "Long enough that I might as well just give you the bottle. Good luck kid, you're going to need it." Junior says to Halley before walking off. Diggie leans onto the bar next to Halley as I Burn Trailer Remix plays in the background, "Any chance that you let me have some of the scotch this time or do you just want to get drunk again so you forget?" he asks Halley who had looked down at her scroll as it buzzes with a new message. She bites her lip and pours herself a few shots and downing them in record time "Nothing with make me forget," she whispers as she reads the message from an unknown number. The message was simple enough that it had no effect on Diggie, but to Halley, it was the coming apocalypse. "Hello little sister," appeared on her scroll before disappearing only seconds later. "Nothing will ever be the same again…" Halley whispers just wishing that she would wake up from this nightmare.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Ashes to Ashes

" _I feel like you know what I'm feeling_

 _It's that devil on your back you thought you buried in the past_

 _I feel like you know what I'm feeling_

 _Like you're holding onto life by the skin under your teeth"_

 _-Devil on Your Back by the Letter Black_

Red and orange flickers in the young woman's hands as she stops outside a club late one night. The flames in her hands go out as she closes her hand while a tall boy with grey-ish silver hair and a zip-up jacket opens the door to the club. Loud pounding of club music blares out of the club and into the dingy alleyway. The young woman walks in, her long raven black hair flowing behind her as her black stiletto heels click on the floor. Her cold amber eyes graze the room for Junior, who was talking to three of his goons that Roman Torchwick did not hire. Her crimson and gold dress ended at her upper thighs in the front and continued on a short while in the back. Part of her upper back exposed pale skin with the enigma of two high heels put together seeming to be tattooed on her skin. "I hear that you know everything, Junior. And that the girl I am looking for has been here every night for the past week," the woman says coldly while approaching Junior. Junior's three goons back away to avoid possible confrontation with the amber eyed girl.

"Halley just left. She mentioned something about second semester starting tomorrow. She doesn't want to see you though," Junior explain crossing his arms unaffected by her cold glare. The woman walks up to Junior and looks up at him with a glare that could make a murderer cry for mommy "And why is that? She knows that I wish to speak to her," she states nearly emotionless while flicking her fingers making a bright flame appear. Junior gulps a little bit stepping back, "Well… she might be a little drunk…" he says hesitantly backing up as the woman's eyes burst into flames. "You gave a 17 year old alcohol!" the woman exclaims angrily about to fry Junior on the spot walking towards him, her eyes burning like burning embers. "Actually… he gave it to her," Junior says using the middle goon as a scapegoat.

The woman throws a fireball at the goon covering him in fire. The man screams loudly as the fire incinerates him until he was nothing but ashes. "Holy shit she killed Frank!" the goon on the right exclaims before adding "Oh well, I banged his wife." The goon on the left turned to the goon on the right pure anger shining in his eyes. 'I'm Frank! That was Johnny!" The third goon looks at Frank in disbelief before saying "Damn it! I liked Johnny! By the way Frank, I banged your wife."

The raven-haired woman rolled her eyes before walking out of the club with her two sub-ordinates in tow.

Halley was sitting outside of the cafeteria with a flask of whiskey next to her as she looks down in concentration on her bass guitar. The bass was a black Stream Stage 1 Warwick with the next slowly turning gold as it reaches the fingerboard. Halley takes a swig from her flask before effortlessly beginning to play a complex melody on her bass.

" _If you want to know how far to go to Hell_

 _Just ask me_

 _If you want to see the view from your knees_

 _Come down and join me_

 _I'm the final straw_

 _The nail in the coffin_

 _Just by being who I am_

 _Is so Goddamned"_

Halley sings as she plays her bass, her voice as beautiful as the sunbeams that touch all of Vale. As Halley was about to go into the second stanza, a tall boy with silver-grey hair steps in front of her with a smirk on his hipster douchebag face. "For someone who is supposed to be dead, you look pretty alive to me. And to Cinder. She's been worried about you, kid. Especially after Ashe told Cinder that you enlisted Qrow to help you fake your death," the boy says sitting down next to Halley who glares at him. "Go away Mercury. I was actually having a good day until you showed up. And never mention Ashe, she doesn't need to be dragged into the hell you are helping Cinder create," Halley practically growls at him before taking another swig from her flask enjoying the burning feeling as the whiskey flows down her throat.

"So why did you fake your death?" Mercury asks taking Halley's flask as Jaune flies up against the window and slowly slides down. "What the…" Mercury starts to say as Halley cuts in with "Just don't question it, douchebag. And as for why I faked my death, sometimes to save your life, you gotta die."

Mercury sniffs the content of Halley's flask "Whiskey? Nice choice kid, I'm sure your sister will appreciate the gift." he smirks getting up and starting to close the flask. "See you around, Em. Try not to die," Mercury laughs as Halley gets up and starts to chase him right as all the students of Beacon run out of the cafeteria to avoid the food fight between teams JNPR and RWBY, making the trace of Mercury and Halley vanish.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Phoenix Rising

" _As I stare_

 _Ever so carefully_

 _The darkness stares_

 _Right back at me_

 _The heartless world_

 _Clings to fake_

 _Ideas that I_

 _No longer make_

 _My world was shredded_

 _Torn apart_

 _As my world_

 _So was my heart_

 _I lost feeling_

 _And became so numb_

 _Blissfully ignorant_

 _Of what is to come_

 _The smile on my face_

 _Is forced by me_

 _Sorry to tell you_

 _I want to be free_

 _Like a shadow in the night_

 _Invisible to all_

 _I want nothing there_

 _When I fall"_

 _-Unknown_

Cinder was walking through the dorm halls with Emerald and Mercury in front of her. Ruby suddenly runs out of team RWBY's dorm room in a panic after realizing that she left her board game in the library and runs into Emerald. "I'm sorry. Are you alright?" Ruby asks as she looks up at Emerald who was offering a hand to help Ruby up. "I'm fine. Watch where you're going," Emerald says in an annoyed tone. "Right. Sorry," Ruby nervously chuckles as she takes Emerald's hand and gets up before dropping Emerald's hand. "I'm Ruby! Are you new?" Ruby says immediately going back to her chipper self. Emerald steps to the side as Cinder moves between Mercury and Emerald. "Visiting from Haven actually," Cinder corrects with no emotion. Ruby stares into Cinder's eyes suspicious of the newcomer as if recognizing her as the one on the helicopter with Roman Torchwick. "Oooohhh! You're here for the festival! Oh! But the exchange students have their own dormitory!" Ruby points out surprised that they are in the dorms for the students that go to Beacon. "I guess we just got turned around," Mercury comments coolly with a smirk on his face. Ruby starts to laugh before saying "Don't worry! It happens all the time!" as the three members of team CEMN begin to walk past her. "You're building is juuuust east of here," Ruby finishes turning and motioning to the east as Cinder walks past her "Thanks, maybe we'll see you around," Cinder coolly responds with a slight shrug as she walks after her subordinates. "Yeah maybe! And welcome to Beacon!" Ruby calls after the three after turning around to face their retreating backs before going to the library.

"So which room do you think our little runaway is in?" Emerald asks after they turn the corner. Mercury leans against the wall as the next door down blasts open and crashes into the wall across from it. "Found it," Mercury comments while playing on his scroll. Shouting can be heard as the trio of doom walk towards the room that team SHDW resides in. Halley can clearly be heard arguing with Warden about whether or not blowing the door off of its hinges is the mature way of dealing with a simple lost flask. Cinder looks into the room to see Seth in front of a mirror messing with his hair, Diggie chasing his tail between two of the beds, and Warden sitting on one of the beds with Halley across from him with a chessboard between them. Seth smirks at himself in the mirror before noticing Cinder out of the corner of his eyes. As the light brown haired boy gets up, Diggie notices Seth approaching Cinder and rests a hand on his shoulder before warning him "Don't even try, Seth. It'll be worse than flirting with Halley and will end extremely painful for you." Seth just smirks and shrugs off Diggie's hand before walking over to Cinder. Cinder raises an eyebrow as the teen stops in front of her and flips his hair "Hey firebug," Seth flirts while winking and giving Cinder a dazzling smile. Halley hears Seth and turns around before smirking mischievously. She gets up with her stilettos tapping against the floor as she stops behind him and taps his shoulders, right as Seth turns, Halley smiles innocently before kicking him in the balls with all of her strength. "Crotch shot! Really! That's a little excessive!" Seth squeaks doubled over as Warden rolls his eyes and Diggie leads the doubled over teen away from the door. Cinder just chuckles at the actions of Halley as Halley leads Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury away from the room.

"What are you guys doing here?" Halley demands crossing her arms glaring at the three. She dropped her playful demeanor to replace with a serious and emotionless one. Cinder gives her subordinates a look and they back off giving the two raven-haired, amber eyed, fiery girls space to talk. "I came to complete the plan, finding you alive was simply an amazing surprise," Cinder responds with a smile that was full of love as she pulls in Halley for a hug. "I didn't think you'd care that I was gone. You only ever cared about the mission," Halley whispers into Cinder's ear a bit shocked from the affection Cinder was showing her. "I don't know what I would've done if you really were gone, baby sister. Even though you faked your death, a part of me knew that you were still alive. I couldn't stand the thought of you being all alone out there," Cinder whispers back almost inaudibly. Tears began to form in Cinder's eyes as she hugged Halley tightly as if she was afraid that she would lose Halley the second she let go. "I didn't know that you still cared. I thought that my sister that chased away my nightmares and protected me had died along with our parents. I'm so sorry, Cinder," Halley chokes out starting to cry onto Cinder's shoulder. "We are together now, Ember. That is what matters," Cinder responds pulling away from the hug and wiping the tears off of Halley's, or Ember's, face. "You have grown up so much in the past three years. We almost look exactly alike now, you just have freckles and added a gold streak to your hair," Cinder smiles kissing Ember's forehead. "How have you been? And is your team always like that?" Cinder asks getting Ember to laugh. "You could say that my team is pretty much a dysfunctional family. Warden acts very much like a mother to the team while Seth flirts with almost every girl he sees. Diggie…he's Diggie…" Ember responds failing to come up with how Diggie acts.

"Come with me to my team's dorm. We have a lot to catch up on," Cinder smiles putting an arm around Ember's shoulder. The two sisters begin to walk to team CEMN's dorm with Mercury and Emerald trailing behind.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Smoldering Embers

" _Love is a wonderful thing, my dear, but it leaves you wide open for blackmail."_

 _― Jasper Fforde, Lost in a Good Book_

Mercury was given a mission. Supposedly not a dangerous mission, but one will never know when it comes to searching for a Fall. Especially Ember Fall. She may not let him survive the experience. He sighs as he walks towards team SHDW's dorm room, whose door was back on its hinges after Ember's last explosion. He pushes open the door that was left cracked after Diggie and Seth headed out to train. He was looking down at his scroll as he walked in not noticing that Warden was still in the room with Ember. "Hey Em…" he starts to say before looking up to see Ember straddling Warden as they make out. Mercury snaps a picture on his scroll right before Ember and Warden break apart. The two blush enough that they become as red as tomatoes. "What are you doing here, Mercury! Get out!" Ember yells at the silverish-grey haired boy. Warden quickly leaves the room to go find the others so Ember can deal with Cinder's lackey. Mercury just chuckles and looks at the photo he had taken of Ember and Warden's make out session. "So how mad would Cinder be if she saw this photo? And how long have you two been dating?" Mercury asks Ember laying down on her and Diggie's bed without a care in the world. Ember stands next to him glaring at him prepared to beat the living shit out of Mercury. "Don't send that photo… And about a month…" Ember answers wrapping black bandages around her hands before grabbing Suckerpunch.

"I won't tell, on one condition," Mercury smirks sitting up and grabbing Ember's fist before it makes contact with his face. "What's the condition?" she glares at him pulling back her fist. She crosses her arms as Mercury stands up and throws an arm around her shoulders, "Cinder has a job for you, and you can't say no to it," he says to her smirking. Ember groans and walks out of the room to search for Cinder.

"What do you want? I'm supposed to go dress shopping for the dance," Ember groans plopping down onto Cinder's bed. Cinder rolls her eyes at Ember's antics and sits down next to her. "You can go dress shopping soon. I just need you to agree to a little job the morning after the dance," Cinder says to Ember calmly plucking Ember's scroll out of her hands so the teen will pay attention. "Say the job already! I don't have long until Warden realizes that I stole his credit card," Ember says trying to snatch her scroll back from her older sister. "I can't make a meeting with Adam after the dance. You will be taking my place," Cinder orders while putting Ember's scroll in a drawer in her desk. "Good job stealing a credit card though, I'm guessing that that is how you are paying for a dress," Cinder smiles patting Ember's shoulder with pride. "I'll talk to Adam. Is it safe to assume that it's to make sure that he will be in position in time?" Ember asks sitting up. She smiles and grabs Cinder's partially sewed dress, she starts to add in more fire dust. "You assume correctly, now let's go get you a dress," Cinder smiles pulling Ember up and grabbing the dress from her. Cinder sets down the dress before the two sisters leave the room. Unknown to them, Ember's scroll was going off in the drawer playing Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice.

"She won't pick up! Why won't she pick up her phone?" Warden says into his scroll while laying down on his bed in team SHDW dorm room. Diggie and Seth went to go get their tuxedos for the dance leaving Warden to find Ember. Warden had tried to call and text Ember to no avail. "What if I'm not good enough for her?" he says rubbing his head worried. He saw Ember as the best fighter on the team, despite her explosive tendencies, because unlike the others, she acted as if she could get killed at any moment keeping her from holding back in a fight.

"Warden, as much as I love hearing about your girl troubles, you do realize that I have work to do," Winter says over her scroll. She was attempting to do her work when Warden had called in a panic about something of upmost importance. "I know but Weiss wouldn't be able to help me with this. She's too busy planning the dance and trying to work up her courage to ask out Neptune," Warden responds polishing Parthenos, which had gotten smudged after his last spar with Diggie. His scroll was balanced on his shoulder with his head tilted so he could talk into it. "Warden, you are good enough for her. You were good enough to get into Beacon and on top of that, you're a Schnee. She should consider herself lucky that she's with you. Now get out there and find her and ask her out," Winter says to Warden before hanging up on him. "Next time I'm just making him call Weiss," she mutters before getting back to her work.

Ember and Cinder had went separate ways once exiting the air ship, Cinder went to meet up with Mercury and Emerald while Ember started to head towards team SHDW's dorm room to hang up her dress. Warden was wandering around the courtyard searching for Ember with a red rose in hand. The second Ember steps up into Warden's sights, he runs down over to her. "Halley! Or Ember… Whatever your name actually is, will you be my date to the dance?" Warden asks Ember offering her the rose. He rubs his head nervously as she smirks pretending to think about it. "Of course, Ice Prince. It would be an honor," Ember smiles kissing Warden's cheek. Warden smiles as they walk towards the dorm for the night, hand in hand.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Dance Dance Infatuation

" _Party hard; make mistakes; laugh endlessly; do things you're afraid to do. After all, you're only young once."_

 _-Anonymous_

Seth, Diggie, and Warden were getting ready for the dance. None of them have seen Ember at all that day and her dress wasn't in the closet any more. Seth had finished getting dressed an hour earlier and was currently forcing Diggie into a shirt. "Why do I need to wear a shirt? Why can't I just put a tie on and not put on a shirt?" Diggie complains trying to escape from his best friend's partner, who was currently forcing Diggie's arms into a white, button-up shirt. "Don't you want to try to get a girl to dance with you?" Warden asks adjusting his black bowtie in the mirror in front of Seth's bed making the wolf faunus nod. "Then get on the suit, the more dashing you look, the more girls you will get," Warden reasons with the other boy, getting Diggie to quickly get on the shirt and button it up. "It'll be weird. I don't wear shirts, much less penguin suits," Diggie comments as he gets the jacket shrugged on.

Warden and Seth laugh at Diggie's complaining as they work on the finishing touches on themselves. "I'll meet you two there, I have to go pick up Ember," Warden smiles as the other guys clap him on the back and take off towards where the dance is being held at a full out run as they whoop and holler down the halls. Footsteps pound through the hall with laughter going along with it as students from Beacon, Atlas, Haven, and Shade head to the dance filled with excitement and joy. Fighting his way through the crowd proved to become difficult, thanks to Warden heading in the opposite direction. Out of all days Ember chose to get ready in a different room, she had to make it the one day that it would be hard to get her. She just loves making his life difficult…

As Warden rounds the corner to the exchange students' dorms, Ember could be seen leading against a door playing on her scroll. Her shoulder length raven locks were in waves with even more blonde-ish gold streaks in her hair. Her red strapless dress tightly hugs her curves and flares out past her hips. A large slit goes up one side leaving almost an entire leg exposed, gold swirls around her chest as it lights up briefly, showing it to be fire dust sewn in. "Hey stud, you're late," Ember smirks sauntering over to Warden laying a hand on his chest as her amber eyes shine with amusement as he drools a bit at the sight of her. "Enjoying what you see?" she smirks getting Warden to snap out of the trance he was in and wipe the drool off of his chin. "Possibly," he answers trying to hide the fact that he really liked the sight of her in the dress. Ember smirks and walks over to him pulling him on into the crowd as they make their way into the dance.

Music pounds as couples go onto the dance floor. Laughter and talking fills the air as the students and even teachers enjoy the night of rest. The night of fun. The night with no responsibilities… except making sure Yang doesn't spike the punch bowl. Diggie and Seth stick to the sides hanging out with Neptune as the blue-haired teen goofs around. Ember and Warden walk in with Ember's arm in the crook of Warden's, immediately grabbing the attention of Emerald and Mercury. Warden heads to the punch bowl as Ember heads towards Emerald and Mercury, "fancy seeing you dweebs here," she smirks as Cinder's sub-ordinates frown. "Does Cinder approve of your dress?" Emerald asks Ember once noticing the long slit in the side making Ember smirk even more "Are you my mother?" she retorts getting the older girl to sigh. Mercury just chuckles as Ember smiles innocently at Emerald who just glared at the younger girl.

"So where is Cinder anyways? Is she going to be running late?" Ember asks tapping her foot to the beat of the music, making Mercury smirk at the young huntress-in-training's antics. "Well, songbird, your big sis has some… business to take care of," Mercury answers looking over the dance floor. "Sooooo, did you bring your boyfriend as your date?" he smirks before Ember even has the chance to find out what the ringleader is up to. A light blush dances across Ember's cheek as Emerald smirks, "So the mini-Cinder has a boyfriend. Who is he? Is he cute?" the mint-chip ice cream themed thief teases throwing an arm around the younger girl's shoulders. "I have no idea of what you guys are talking about, the idea is as preposterous as Cinder and/or Mercury ever having children," Ember states once her blush slowly dies down not noticing that Mercury was looking at the ceiling as if he didn't want to be noticed. "You mean Cinder didn't tell you? You happen to be an aunt…" Emerald smirks as Ember's eyes widen in surprise. "So all of those one on one meetings she would have with Mercury four years ago… weren't business meetings at all?" the teen asks sounding afraid of the answer she would receive from the older girl. "Oh far from it," Emerald laughs as Mercury glares at the green-haired girl whose smirk grows. "Ew ew ew ew. I'm just going to go now," Ember says completely grossed out before swiftly walking over to Warden, who had finally managed to pour two cups of punch.

"Something wrong, Em?" Warden asks noticing a grossed out look in his girlfriend's eyes. Her normal playful eyes were replaced with a mixture of shock and disgust, as if she caught someone performing bestiality. "Em?" Warden asks again after a minute of Ember not even responding. Not even a blink. Raven waves fall into Ember's face as she shakes her head to insist that she's fine as she takes the punch from the male Schnee. "I'm fine," Ember insists as she takes a flask of whiskey out of the top of her dress. After pouring a generous amount into her punch, she looks up to see Warden's confused look pointed towards her. "If you're fine… then why are you drinking?" he asks honestly confused by the fire-loving girl's antics. A chuckle comes from Ember as she gives an even more generous amount to Warden in his cup, "Because it'll help you let loose a little. You're only young once, Ice King. Melt a little," she smirks as Warden tries the spiked punch. The whiskey burns its way down his throat as he swallows leaving a look of disgust on his face, however, he couldn't stop himself from drinking the poison. All he knew was that Ember has enjoyed the burning feeling quite a bit ever since the exchange students arrived at Vale. Without knowing why she liked it by her telling him, he must drink to figure out why she has acted more… explosive lately. If it wasn't for his concern for his firebug, he wouldn't have even drank the punch she spiked. His head starts to feel a slight buzz as he finishes his drink making him feel… good. "So… how was your first taste of whiskey? It's magical, right?" Ember asks kissing his cheek with a smile while finishing off her cup of whiskey and punch. "Better than I thought," Warden responds after a second of thought and getting himself and Ember more punch.

With a slight smirk and a mischievous glint in her eyes, Ember takes both cups and pours more whiskey than the first round into the two cups. "Good, now let's loosen up," Ember smiles drinking her spiked punch as Warden slowly sips from his. By the time Warden finally finished his second drink, Ember was on her third. Giggles burst out of his mouth slightly shocking everyone around him. Laughter erupts from Ember as the drunken Warden stumbles around and holds onto her shoulders in order to keep from falling. "Stop laughin at me," he slurs as Ember holds him up when he almost falls. "I need to get you back to the dorm before anyone else sees this," Ember says putting his arm around her shoulders as she moves towards the hallway that leads to the dorms. On the way there, Ember began to drink straight from her flask causing her to slowly get drunker as Warden attempts to kiss her, just to miss each time. By the time they reached their dorm, with the recently fixed door after Ember blew it off its hinges once again the night before leaving yet another scorch mark on it. "Doesn't it feel great to have loosened up a bit?" Ember purrs into his ear as Warden pins her up against the wall next to the door. He kisses her roughly trying to get drunker on the taste of her making the younger Fall girl smirk as Mercury runs over to them. "Why did you think it would be a good idea to get drunk, Emmy?" the silver haired boy asks crossing his arms trying to keep his boss' sister out of trouble. Ember just pulls away from Warden, much to the white-haired boy's distaste, before pulling him into the dorm room. "Hey Douchebag! Tell Diggie and Seth to not wait up or come in!" she calls over her shoulder before shutting the door behind her.


	9. Important Author's Note

**Important Author's Note: I am currently working on rewriting this story! I will be keeping two chapters relatively the same but I am otherwise changing the story so far. I will hopefully have my first of two trailers up this weekend and I'm going to work towards hopefully updating every week but that will be a matter of how much work I get. Hopefully I won't have to completely delete the story and can just delete and update the chapters! I will put up another author's note if I need to delete this story and make a new one!**

 **\- I'm A Veronica**


	10. Important Author's Note 2

**Important Author's Note: So I decided to make a new story for the edited version of this story. It is titled under To Save Your Life, You Gotta Die Revamp! Just thought that getting the word out to the people following this story would be a good idea for all of you to continue reading it with extra scenes added in that definitely won't be completely fluff. Every vague part in this version of the story will be explained in the new version so hopefully it will be easier to follow.**


End file.
